Santa Clara County signs off on homelessness pact with San Jose — but disagreements on strategy persist

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors signed off on a new partnership with the city of San Jose this week that aims to better address the local homelessness dilemma but not without criticism from several county functionaries who feel the city has abandoned building permanent housing instead opting to erect more shelters The board voted unanimously on Tuesday afternoon to approve a proposal from Supervisor Betty Duong that would expand the Valley Homeless Healthcare Venture to provide wellness services at San Jose-funded shelters interim housing and safe parking sites The initiative which is expected to come back with an update to the board in January also pledges to integrate the city s shelter system into the county s process for getting people into permanent supportive housing and continue the expansion of behavioral wellbeing beds Related Articles Prop funding fight pits Newsom against San Jose Mayor Mahan After acrimony over South Bay homeless issues new strategy proposed San Jose says homeless encampments are producing of waterway trash Prop promised recovery for people with serious drug addiction but jails are left holding the bag Berkeley s Homeless Response Organization trying to keep the lights on while improving Homelessness is one of the most of pressing issues in our neighborhood particularly in San Jose which has over of the unhoused population of the county Duong reported The proposal has received the endorsement of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan who earlier this year called on the county to step up their efforts as the South Bay s provider of wellbeing and human services The mayor who has built much of his platform on the principle of going back to the basics has been vocal about the region s need to move the needle on homelessness which includes ensuring unhoused people have access to mental robustness or substance use remedy as part of their road to rehousing During a press conference last week at the Guadalupe Interim Housing Group Mahan called the proposal a great step in the right direction But at Tuesday s board meeting Supervisors Susan Ellenberg and Sylvia Arenas raised concerns about San Jose s approach to ending homelessness that has fixated on cracking down on encampments and erecting shelters instead of building more housing Arenas who previously represented parts of East San Jose and Evergreen on the San Jose City Council stated she was somewhat disappointed with the path that the city has taken This is not necessarily aligned with housing first the strategy that preponderance advocates utilize as an evidence-based model Arenas revealed My concern is that we are going to be misaligned in terms of our strategy Ellenberg whose District encompasses much of West San Jose revealed integrating the city s shelters into the county s process for housing placement will allow for greater efficiencies less duplication of efforts and hopefully more flourishing stories of people exiting homelessness and achieving long term stability The supervisor though noted that just focusing on interim solutions is a temporary stopgap for homelessness I think is San Jose and all of our cities want to see a real and sustained reduction in people experiencing homelessness particularly those who are entirely unsheltered Ellenberg mentioned There s no path other than housing that will achieve that goal In a declaration Mahan reported there are so numerous techniques someone can fall into homelessness we need just as a large number of solutions to help out of it That s why we invest across the spectrum of solutions from prevention to interim housing to permanent affordable housing the mayor reported In fact we re proud to have invested in over units of affordable housing over the past three years and it s worth noting that San Jose continues to be the only city in the county that allocates millions of dollars per year to homelessness prevention assistance The new partnership has gotten the attention of other cities in the county that are also grappling with increased rates of homelessness according to Duong I ve heard from other cities wanting to have a similar model implemented in their jurisdiction she commented I appreciate that and applaud that initiative This day my referral is asking for us to start with where the issue exists at its greatest form In a Tuesday morning email to county authorities Mountain View City Manager Kimbra McCarthy noted that the city has been a leader in the affordable housing space and a leader in implementing programs to help residents experiencing homelessness Still the city saw a increase in homelessness from to according to the results of the biannual point-in-time count The City of Mountain View respectfully asks that we receive similar restoration and the same level of accelerated utility and implementation for the numerous efforts underway in Mountain View regarding housing and homelessness McCarthy wrote Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga a former Mountain View mayor who represents the city on the board echoed the city manager s concerns The way this was written seems like there was a preference she commented I think that s the issue But County Executive James Williams mentioned they are planning on expanding particular of the initiatives like the Valley Homeless Healthcare Initiative to other cities Other parts of the proposal like the expansion of behavioral strength care beds he noted can be accessed by anyone in the county The approach that we re trying to take here really is to bring these San Jose facilities into alignment with the partnership that we candidly already have with the non-San Jose cities that have made investments in this space around the county Williams stated Mountain View has been a really good partner with the county in those efforts